odds and ends
Today is 5.23.02, the time is 6:39 p.m.
I have an awful lot of things to say, but I'm having trouble finding the flowery words to say them. So here I spew forth some poorly-written incoherent streams of thought.
- Success in High School does not predict success in college. I seriously want to send copies of my college transcripts to my high school guidance counselor and assistant principal. They laughed at me for thinking I could hack it at a Big Ten school. Yeah, sure, my grades were less than stellar (I think I graduated with a 2.8 GPA), and I was making truancy a habit. Anyway, I was still accepted at U of MN (due to my 28 on the ACT), and I had a 3.6 there. I just graduated from the overrated UW (which is considered to be a city of gold by teachers and administrators at West Bend High School: Oh he's so smart...he's going to Madison!), with my cumulative GPA of 3.488, and that doesn't include my grades from U of MN (which would bring me up to about 3.55). Sure, that's no honors degree, but I'm still pretty proud of it, especially since I didn't study very hard.
- Frank and I were going to set out for the Farmer's Market yesterday, riding our bikes. Right as we were about to leave, I looked down and noticed that my right pedal had fallen off. This event best describes how I've been feeling lately: like a perfectly good bike, ready to ride, to go places. But I have no way to be set in motion, no where to place my feet.
- So I've been doing a lot of walking. Yesterday I walked on the Lake Shore Path along Lake Mendota. I passed the Union and continued until I passed my old dorm. Then I walked toward the Bassett neighborhood, and I went shopping for pasta sauce materials at the Mifflin St. Coop. Passed another former abode, then I walked to Little Katie's house to work, passing another former house on the way. I worked with her for 2 hours and then walked back to my present apartment. All the while, I listened to old mix tapes of emo and jangly indie rock. Bittersweet music to accompany my pilgrimage through my past. Haunting my old haunts. I wonder if I'm inhabiting my past to protect me from the future. I think it would do me good to move away from here if only to force me to break old patterns.
- I've decided to join Capital Fitness. If nothing else, at least it will give me somehing to do. Something more productive than cultivating bad habits, like becoming a smoker (which I have played with for the past week and a half). Plus, I genuinely like exercizing--it's just a question of getting myself to go do it. Some of my favorite instructors of my college career were my aerobics instructors. Yes, I realize that I am a dork.
- Frank is watching a Metallica video that he bought from Goodwill. Lars Ulrich had some funny hair in 1989. He is also making statements now, like Aww Yes! and Oh Fuck! and is singing along with One. I don't know whether this is disgusting or endearing.